Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was scheduled to meet her Cambodian counterpart on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit foreign ministers’ meeting on the weekend and Australia’s Ambassador for People Smuggling Issues, Craig Chittick, will visit the country next week, Fairfax Media understands.

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A spokesman for Ms Bishop said no agreement with Cambodia had been signed yet.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said through a spokesman there was "no further update on the status" of discussions with Cambodia since his visit to Phnom Penh earlier this year.

Critics of the proposed deal say Cambodia is unprepared to accept large numbers of refugees. Photo: Joe Armao

"The government is continuing its discussions on these issues and welcomes the receptive and positive response from Cambodia that has been provided to date," the spokesman said.

The removal of 1000 refugees would almost empty Nauru’s detention centre, which currently holds 1146 people.

But their arrival in Cambodia would represent a nearly 1500 per cent increase on the number of refugees the country officially manages.

According to the UNHCR figures, there are only 68 recognised refugees and 12 asylum seekers in Cambodia.

Critics of the proposed deal say Cambodia is unprepared to accept large numbers of refugees.

Joyce Chia, from the University of NSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law said the proposed transfer was “a flawed deal” for all sides and that the refugees should be resettled in Australia.

“It would be far cheaper for the Australian people, it would be a better outcome for human rights, it would be more legally compliant, and it would be better for these refugees who have been extensively traumatised by their incarceration.”

Cambodia has no infrastructure for resettling refugees, or government services to assist them. The UN says 45 per cent of the country’s population lives in poverty. As well, Cambodia is a Buddhist country and almost all the refugees on Nauru are Muslim and don’t speak Khmer.

“Cambodia is a poor country, a developing country, with no history of resettling refugees, or established capacity for that. This is not a long-term solution,” Dr Chia said.

There is also concern Australia is using its economic influence to coerce Cambodia into accepting its refugees.

Australia is one of Cambodia’s largest aid benefactors. In a dramatically reduced aid budget for 2014-15, the budget for ''cross regional programs'' was more than doubled from $309 million to $686 million. Labor accused the government of running a “slush fund” to buy off Cambodian co-operation.

“I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t some sort of quid pro quo here,” Dr Chia said. “That is consistent with what’s happened in the past. But the real question is why don’t we know, why has the Australian government not told the Australian people what Cambodia is getting in return?”

There are concerns about corruption in Cambodia – Transparency International ranks the nation 160 out of 177 countries for government transparency – and over human rights abuses committed by government agents. The country’s asylum policies are not immune from political pressure.

In 2009, 20 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers were forcibly deported to China even as the UN refugee agency was processing their applications.

The next day, China’s then vice president Xi Jinping arrived in Cambodia and signed 14 economic aid and investment deals worth $1.2 billion, thanking the Cambodia government for returning the Uighurs. “According to Chinese law, these people are criminals,'' he said.

Foreign media later reported that four of the women were condemned to execution, while the others were sentenced to jail terms in excess of a decade.

Cambodia is adamant no refugees will be accepted from Australia against their will.

“It is not that the government will force them to come or that Cambodia will accept [them] without studying whether they volunteered to come or not, and this is a very important aspect,” Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has said.

But the Australian deal has bred widespread resentment in Cambodia.

Opposition politician Son Chhay said Cambodia risked becoming a “dumping ground” for Australia’s obligations. “Cambodia is not a rich country,” he said, “we have to find a way to help the refugees, but not to fall under the Australian policies of dumping refugees.”

The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee said the country was not safe for refugees.

“There is a serious culture of impunity where Cambodian security forces and government agencies have been known to commit abuses such as killings, torture, and arbitrary detention without being held accountable. Those living on the margins are particularly vulnerable to the abuses.”

Tom Vargas, from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said the Australia-Cambodia deal was “not in the spirit of resettlement”.

“A real solution is not to send them to a country that is still recovering from a horrible civil war that killed millions of its people.”

314 comments

I am sure that, with Australian help, Cambodia can quickly recycle the camps setup by the Khmer Rouge. So, it won't be long before they have all the infrastructure required.

Commenter

Gerard

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 7:09AM

To give Cambodia it's due credit, it is one of the few countries in SE Asia that has signed the refugee protocol. They also need skilled and educated migrants. In war torn countries, it is the bourgeois class that escape their homes and become assylum seekers. The poor head for camps. Cambodia could do with a new bourgeois class to become part of a growing economy.

Commenter

Kingstondude

Location

Malaysia atm

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 8:20AM

Kingstondude"They need skilled and educated migrants". Doesn't Australia? Isn't that what we have built our Nation and prosperity on?

Commenter

rext

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 8:36AM

KD the have their own bourgeois, go to PP and checkout the nouveau rich. It's the overwhelming disparity of the poor, as is the lack of infrastructure. There is a minority Islamic population in the South but they are not by any means the bourgeois, they are the poor.This is an absolute cop out on our obligations.Let's pass the buck onto Cambodia. Their Govt is in chaos and last year it felt like it was on the brink of civil war. Hun Sen rules with an iron fist and Rainsey boycotted parliament over the dodgy elections.Cambodia does not deserve our problems, they deserve our help.

Commenter

A country gal

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 9:09AM

@ ACG, our UN commitments to the Asylum seekers is not to ressettle them, but to give them asylum. Sending processed asylum seekers to Cambodia, is complying with the UHNCR guidelines.

Commenter

Kingstondude

Location

Malaysia atm

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 9:18AM

@ACG.....It is not our obligation under the UNHCR to make poor people wealthy.

Commenter

John

Location

Newcastle

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 9:34AM

John - it is not our obligation either to make persecuted people unsafe.

Commenter

Ross

Location

MALLABULA

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 10:02AM

Will Cambodia be taking all the refugees coming through the front door, excess 457 visa holders, students with work visas, immigrants, welfare recipients and Australians that can't find a job? That would solve a lot of problems for the Liberal Party!

Commenter

Darcy

Location

Sydney

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 10:06AM

With the boats all but stopped, we should simply now process the remaining refugee / asylum seekers and re-settle or return those that do not qualify. Job done.

Commenter

$keptic

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

August 11, 2014, 10:06AM

KD it may scrape in re our obligations but morally or ethically it's scrapping the barrel. I've been to Cam twice and my daughter worked there for a few years in the reproductive health/family planning field. So, some insight. Particularly being there during the mass protests was an eye opener. Speaking to locals when they felt it safe to do so was, 'informative'. Spent quite a bit of time with an expat who'd lived there since the downfall of Pol Pot. The trips weren't all about visiting temples or sight seeing (last trip predominately dental).

JB Never said that. Merely responding to Kingston's thoughts and perceived aspirations for refugees.